VR and IoT Unite to Enable New Control of our Smart Environments

As our environment becomes increasingly digital and responsive with the addition of sensors, actuators and connectivity it enables new functionality to improve our lives and work processes. However, effectively programming this complex network can be a difficult task, with the programming interface for these objects removed entirely from the world that the connected objects reside in.

Recently, two news outlets covered Project Ivy - a project Barrett Ens completed while on internship with the User Interface Research Group.Ivy explores a new paradigm, where novice and skilled users alike can step into a virtual representation of their connected environment and program its behaviour by directly interacting with the smart objects and connecting them to one another. The interface is simple and intuitive, but still expressive - users can filter sensor values, add logic and flow nodes, and even debug the system using a suite of interactive tools.

Engineering.com recently featured Ivy, as did the IoT institute, which also included more details following an interview with Fraser Anderson from Autodesk Research.